Trump-backed Copenhaver targeted by Sen. Deery in ad accusing her of theft
‘It’s character assassination,’ Copenhaver says at Turning Point USA rally in West Lafayette. In Indiana Senate race featuring tons of outside money, Deery says he’s ‘not going to be a punching bag.’
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TRUMP-BACKED COPENHAVER TARGETED BY SEN. DEERY IN AD ACCUSING HER OF THEFT
Standing in a West Lafayette park shelter Saturday morning next to Scott Presler – a conservative influencer imported into Indiana Senate campaigns and touring the state this weekend as part of a promise of hell and big-money ads in local races by White House allies – Paula Copenhaver soaked in the reminders of big-name endorsements in her role as a candidate touted from the start as part of the payback for state senators who didn’t fall in line with President Donald Trump.
“Thank you for being loyal to our president, thank you for being loyal to your state,” Presler, founder of Early Vote Action and a Trump loyalist with more than 2 million followers on the social media platform X, told Copenhaver in front of a group of about 30 people gathered for a Turning Point USA rally at Happy Hollow Park.
“Back in January, I said I was going to come to Indiana to hold accountable any Republican state senator that was not being a true conservative voice,” Presler said before heading to similar events Saturday in Franklin and Terre Haute, geared to target other Indiana senators who didn’t buy into a White House-pushed redistricting plan in Indiana.
“And I kept my promise,” he said. “I hope that May 5 will be a day of reckoning across Indiana.”
For Copenhaver – a former Fountain County clerk who holds endorsements from Trump, Gov. Mike Braun and her boss, Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, in a Republican primary against West Lafayette state Sen. Spencer Deery – Saturday’s event fell days after TV ads started running in regular rotation across Senate District 23, tagging her for a court ruling two decades ago for stealing money in a business deal.
“Look at the facts – there is nobody perfect under the sun,” Copenhaver told a group tucked under Happy Hollow’s Shelter No. 3 on a drizzly morning. “I’m in it to serve Hoosiers. I’m not in it to personally attack anybody. … My opponent can sling mud all he wants. I’m not taking it personal, and I’m not making it personal.”
After the rally, with T-shirts dug out of boxes from the back of her car and distributed to a handful of people who agreed to canvass for her, Copenhaver didn’t directly address the details in a Deery-paid ad that accuses her of stealing $120,000. The facts behind a 2006 court ruling are more complicated than that in a case dealing with a dispute that included Copenhaver’s former husband and another business partner.
But it’s the latest salvo in what has been a salty campaign that has featured outside ad buys aimed at Deery’s voting record – particularly that he didn’t support Trump’s agenda on redistricting – that are approaching $1 million, according to an Associated Press account.
“It’s character assassination,” Copenhaver said Saturday. “And they’re making it into something that they want to make it into. I always tell my kids, whatever you’re looking for, you’re going to find. If you want to see the bad in something, you’re going to find it. If you want to see the good in something, you’re going to find it. Again, I’m going to do what I have done, pushing back against government overreach.”
Deery this week acknowledged that “it’s certainly possible (the people who made the ad) got carried away a little bit.”
“But the larger point is absolutely spot on,” Deery said. “The reality is, I think votes are incredibly easy to distort and to twist around. The court documents, I would like to think that’s less true. … I think there’s some questionable things that are disqualifying that I had an obligation as a candidate to present the voters for them to determine and look into for themselves. I will always do my duty, even if it’s unpleasant, and that is what we ran into here.”
Deery – who had warned supporters about dark money claims coming, then grumbling and responding when those landed – added: “Just because I think these groups need to stay out of Indiana and we need to stay out of this absolute dishonesty and distortions about my record, I’m also not going to be a punching bag.”
The case featured in the latest ad dates to a 2006 Indiana Court of Appeals ruling involving a dispute between Copenhaver and her then-husband, Michael Copenhaver, and a well driller named Steve Lister over a business relationship that dissolved in 2001.
